Has the Magic Gone?
Hi Friends!
Julien’s Auctions is a house that we don’t mention frequently here. However, if you’re interested in entertainment memorabilia, screen used items or celebrity owned collectibles, they very much seem to be the place right now. I’ve been following them very closely over the last couple of years and not only are their dockets fascinating, creative and extremely well curated, but their auctions are also entertaining (lead auctioneer Zachary Krone is excellent).
Taking place this upcoming Thursday November 6th at the Peterson Museum, Julien’s has partnered with Turner Classic Movies to present their Movies and Motorcars sale. Featuring 131 lots, the catalog mostly offers automobilia of various kinds and from several eras, but also includes screen used items and several celebrity owned vehicles (including an interesting custom-built supercar for basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain). The most widely talked about items, however, are from Steve McQueen himself: jackets, sunglasses and motorcycles including a 1971 Husqvarna and a 1926 Excelsior.
I think it would be hard for anyone to deny (especially readers of this newsletter) how significantly Hollywood has fallen off over the last several years. In fact, I was having a conversation with some folks not too long ago and we couldn’t come up with a single movie with any kind of original idea that any of us genuinely thought was good that was made after about 2007. Lazy remakes, CGI, bad concepts and boring characters have littered the landscape of movie making for close to two decades now.
I can recall walking around Barrett-Jackson for the first of the several years that I initially attended, specifically trying to find movie cars. For me, that was always one of the big draws. Oh look, there’s Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds or a real deal, screen used Bandit Trans Am! These were always highlights for me and they’ve been an important component of the collector car market certainly for longer than I’ve been doing this.
This got me thinking a little bit. When was time we got a really important movie car? I’m not just talking something that somebody saw on screen that they thought was cool (for example, the Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster from Transporter 2), but something that was an actual character in a movie, that instantly became iconic for certain age of people and would capture that magic for them for years to follow.
Cars like the DeLorean from back to the Future, the Smokey and the Bandit car, Bullitt Mustang and Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds have captivated moviegoers and collectors alike and these creations have been powerful enough to keep people’s imaginations for decades at a time.
I think Paul Walker’s R34 Skyline GTR (from 2 Fast 2 Furious on) in all reality was probably the last one to effectively do this, but that was 22 years ago now.
Since then, we’ve had a couple of honorable mentions I would suppose. We had the (very poorly presented) Boss 429 replica from John Wick. We also had the Subaru WRX from Baby Driver, the Green Alfa Romeo Giulia from 6 Underground and of course, Bumblebee from Transformers but with the exception of maybe the latter, I just don’t see people running out to make replicas of these things like they did almost immediately with all of the previously mentioned examples. I do still see people actively pursuing and then ringing the cash registers on those when they do come to market though.
Celebrity owned vehicles certainly still seem to be relevant in today’s market however. In fact, that’s one of the first selling points that most auction houses, dealers and classified sellers highlight when offering a car like that and they do oftentimes demand a premium. I have to wonder if the decline in effort and quality that we have seen from Hollywood for so long now will have a ripple effect here too though. Will we continue to cherish these cinematic superheroes from the past or will the lack of new ones cause the credits on this traditionally important segment to roll?
That’s it for this week……
Darin Roberge
